The ever-increasing capacity of small form factor memory cards allows for new possibilities in distributing digital content. One such development is to distribute memory cards pre-loaded with digital content, such as music, pictures, video, or books. The distribution of digital media content on memory cards presents a variety of challenges. The owner or the provider of such digital content may wish to limit copying, uploading, or downloading of the digital content to other devices. Further, the content provider may prefer to restrict access to the content to a limited number of hardware devices, sometimes referred to as binding content to those devices.
Content management schemes may address these and other content distribution requirements of digital content providers. Some content management schemes may require a specialized application running on the host device in order to access the content, and implement content binding or otherwise regulate access to the content in accordance with the content management scheme. However, such specialized applications may not be installed on all hosts, thus preventing those hosts from accessing the content. Further, some hosts may be incapable of running a specialized content management application because of limitations on storage space or processing capability. Further, a content provider may have to provide the separate specialized applications for a variety of personal computer, PDA, and cellular telephone platforms, which increases the overall cost of distributing content.